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The February 22 edition of the National Go Center’s regular Friday Night Go evening will feature the Center’s first-ever Pair Go/Paella Night, beginning at 7 PM.

For those not familiar with Pair Go, it is played with partners who make alternating moves but are not allowed to converse and communicate strategy. “We’ll explain all the rules when you come,” says Haskell Small. “Come with a partner, or we can pair you with someone else when you arrive.” Mixed pairs are fine in addition to the traditional M-F pairings.

To make this a festive social occasion, Chris Garlock, Managing Editor of the AGA e-Journal and a former professional chef, has volunteered to make paella for the evening (vegetarian option included). Pictured is Michael Redmond 9P making paella under Chris’s tutelage last year.

Please RSVP by 2/20 to Haskell Small (haskell@haskellsmall.com, 202-244-4764). There will be a $5 donation at the door to cover the cost of the paella.

This Sunday is the Pandanet City League Round 4. Follow along with your local team to see them win their league! Watch from many of the AGA and US based Professionals. Games will played LIVE at 3PM on Pandanet in the “AGA City League Room”.

Willis Huang 6D will play Brandon Zhou 6D Monday at 7p EDT on KGS (AGA Tournament Room) to determine the North American representative to the 2019 Globis Cup in Japan.

Huang defeated Sophia Wang in Round 3 on Sunday, and then Zhou defeated Huang in Round 4, giving them each a single loss in the double-elimination qualifier and setting up a final head-to-head on Monday.

Feb 3 ( Feb 4 in China) is one day away from the Lunar New Year’s eve. On that date, about 40 people, including three players from Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin, participated in the “Welcome Spring” Cup, a brand new tournament in Chicago. The event was hosted by Consulate General of China in Chicago, and organized by the Go and Math Academy, Evanston Go Club, Confucius Institute in Chicago, and the US-China Cultural Association.

Acting Consul General Liu Jun welcomed all players with a Lunar New Year greeting. The first “Welcome Spring” Cup brings together go lovers from diverse communities and backgrounds. But beyond competition, it is also a great opportunity for players to make friends and promote understanding through the game. “This year marks as the 40th anniversary of China-U.S. diplomatic relations. I hope this event will not only help build stronger friendship among people, but also strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries,” said Mr. Liu who also participated in the tournament as a 1D player.

This event is a handicap tournament with four divisions, including a youth division. About two-thirds of the participants were casual local players who had never played in tournament in the Chicago area. “It’s really encouraging to see so many new go players from the Great Chicago area come out of hiding to attend this event.” said Tournament Director Xinming Simon Guo, the founder of Go and Math Academy.

Michael Redmond 9p and the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock return with the exciting second half of the 28th game of the AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo selfplay games.

“There’s all these possibilities,” says Redmond, teasing Garlock “You’ve probably forgotten all the different variations we looked at.” Viewer crass syzygy says “Really beautiful variations. Mind blowing,” while Philippe Fanaro says that “‘That’s the good side of dying’ is the highlight of this series.”

These videos are made possible by the support of the American Go Association; please consider joining today!

The schedule for the Globis Cup Qualifier is now set for this weekend, February 9-10, with an additional game on Monday evening, if necessary. The format will be a double-elimination between the four top entrants: Willis Huang, 6D (16); Brandon Zhou, 6D (15); Nate Morse, 4D (19); Sophia Wang, 3D (14).

All games will be played on KGS in the AGA Tournaments Room. AGA rules will be used, 7.5 komi, 1 hour basic time with 5 periods of 30 seconds byo-yomi.

In the event that after Game 6 both players have a 1-1 record, a final game will be played Monday, 6P EDT to determine the championship and the North American representative to the 2019 Globis Cup in Japan.

Max Dohme of Berlin, Germany recently completed a swing through Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur, managing to find and make new go friends at each stop, “including a go lesson from Jimmy Cheng, secretary of the Malaysia Weiqi Association!” During the trip, Max — who started out as a 2-kyu — was promoted to Singapore 1-dan by Yang Jinhua 6p. He also kept records of his games and got them analyzed online by an AI:Game 1Game 2Game 3

In an Op-Ed in The New York Times on Wednesday Jan 30th, columnist Thomas Friedman noted the success of AlphaGo and correctly reported on AlphaZero learning from itself in declaring that the word for the year should be “deep.” Computers are taking us “deep” and in Friedman’s opinion our institutions are not prepared for it.

Go players were shocked by AlphaGo’s success – we were toppled off the mountain – and we are trying to process what we’ve learned about Go. What happens when machines can run – not faster – but longer processing years of experience in hours and finding deep patterns – one thing we’ve always considered the essence of being human and of our very human game?

For Friedman, the power of AI machines in the hands of “bad actors” (as he characterizes some whole governments) by going “deep” is scary.

Go players know to look at the whole board and see the flow of the stones. We lose if we get caught paying attention only to our own corner or blindly following our opponent – a crafty machine – around the board. How can we go as deep? How can we see what the machines cannot? In game terms, how can we keep control of the evaluating function: our right to decide what is important for people, what should be known, what should be shared, and who will be in control of the machines.

It’s too late to pull the pull. It’s not possible to put this new genie back in the bottle. The ancient warning is the same: be careful what you wish for.

Benson, president of the American Go Foundation, is a former president of the American Go Association and former editor of the American Go Journal.
The E-Journal welcomes your thoughts and comments about the game of go and all things related. Email us at journal@usgo.org